Sunday, July 24, 2016

My parents and I ended up unexpectedly driving me
quite a few places to do things, which was really great of them to do.
Especially where they cut down on a 1.5 hour bus ride to return the costumes
my lady and I had rented for this past weekend! It was great to spend so much
time with them as I haven't been able to much of late - plus the weather was
perfect for just driving around town enjoying each other's company.

Once I was back home in the late afternoon, I
spent a few hours relaxing and reading some of the sci-fi that has been
accumulating in my place over the last year but I haven't really had all that
much inclination to dig into.

In the evening, my sister and I watched The
Adventures of Baron Muchausen, a glorious film released in 1988 and set in
the Age of Reason. It's a Terry Gilliam film( of Monty Python fame )and
it's a fantastical adventure that's a feast for both the mind and the eyes.
Much like two of Gilliam's other films that I love( Time Bandits and Brazil )The
Adventures of Baron Muchausen delights at every step, when it doesn't drive
home the despair of reality's mundaneness. There's also a nicely-done retrospective
here if you're not familiar with the film.

If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend watching it
on Blu-ray if at all possible as the visuals will blow your mind - even on
laserdisc, they're really quite incredible and I may pick up the Blu-Ray one of
these days on sale just because of the visuals.

July 19 – Stranger Things

Dang it, another must-watch show I have to watch this year? I still haven't seen the sixth season of Game Of Thrones...!

Well, as shows go, apparently Stranger Thingsis
a true delight, like the old Eerie Indiana ratched up by a factor of ten - that
I can take! It also stars Winona Ryder:

Being rather busy this week being on vacation, I
had to set this show aside for now, as I think I'll enjoy it even more with an
appreciative audience to watch it with - who else but my lady? Though I think
my sister will appreciate it too:

A love letter to the supernatural classics of the
80's, Stranger Things is the story of a young boy who vanishes into thin air.
As friends, family and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an
extraordinary mystery involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying
supernatural forces and one very strange little girl.

Now, I loved Super8, which has some of the best
80's set-dressing I've ever seen, even compared to some 80's films! I really
dig the nostalgia factor inherent in Stranger Things, and I can't wait
to spend a few weekends watching 2-3 episodes in a row: my version of
'binge-watching' that lets my brain process everything. I'm not one to overload
myself by trying to watch a whole season all at once, and I also think that's a
disservice to the creators: there's a lot of care put into each episode( for
most shows, anyway )so why not enjoy them at a more lreisurely pace?

Unless you can't wait until the next episode: that
I understand too.

July 20 – D&D in Tinseltown?

Well, well... is Hollywood actually getting smarter these days?

I know, I never thought I'd have said that
either, but it seems that while commercial success is the driving force
oftentimes for filmmakers, others are turning back to what everyone should
realize is the core of entertainment success:Story.

Which is why more and more of those who are in
charge of getting things done in Hollywood are playing Dungeons & Dragons:
it sharpens their storytelling skills like almost no other activity - as I well
know for my own childhood:

It’s easy to see the game’s appeal for
Hollywood’s creative class. What is acting, after all, if not a highly tuned
form of role-playing? And lots of writers and directors honed their craft as
youngsters by pretending to rescue half-naked fairy princesses from the
clutches of evil wizards. Pendleton Ward, 34, says D&D was a huge influence
in creating Adventure Time, his trippy Cartoon Network fantasy set in the
postapocalyptic Land of Ooo (“I like how monsters in D&D are fully
realized, with instincts and natural habitats and cultures,” he says). The same
goes for David Benioff, 45, Weiss’ fellow Game of Thrones showrunner, who
acknowledges how much his teenage D&D adventures taught him about basic
storytelling. “I had a regular game with the Feinberg brothers,” he recalls of
his adolescence in New York. “The whole campaign must have lasted four years.”
During those marathon get-togethers, Benioff developed an ear for hooking
audiences. “If the scenarios didn’t work and the Feinbergs got bored, I’d need
to recalibrate.”

Could it be that the future movers and shakers of
Hollywood might actually be good storytellers and that will translate into
better productions?

One can only hope, but if I could wave a magic
wand and cast a spell...

July 21 – Aliens Anniversary

Looks like it wasn't game over, after all.

30 years ago today, my 13-year-old self didn't
know it but an action-packed science-fiction adventure was awaiting in the
theaters for me to see.

The sequel to the tense and atmospheric movie Alien
was of course, Aliens, directed by James Cameron of Terminator fame.
At the time, I recall thinking that the idea of hunting aliens with anything
other than special acid-resistant suits was silly, but after seeing the film I
was willing to forgive them this point as it was just so much fun to watch...
and re-watch as the years went by.

I own the first three films on laserdisc( the
third I'll probably never watch again, as I think the story choices it made
really stink )and I'll likely pick up the 30th anniversary edition coming
out this September on Blu-ray... just because.

I've also picked up some small memorabilia over
the years, such as a die-cast dropship, APC( two, actually ) plus a few action
figures, a poster, and even made my own USCM costume which I wore to Comicon
earlier this year:

Did I mention I really love this film?

I'm really pleased that so many other people
still enjoy it as much as I do, to the point where there's quite a few USCM
chapters who kit up and get out to various events to show their enthusiasm for Aliens.

It's not just another bug hunt, y'know.

July 22 – Not Funny

What if Donald Trump's entire campaign was a joke
gone bad?

That's the premise of the 9-minute video below,
as presented by Cracked.com - a magazine I read back in the 80's right along
with Mad, as much for their zany artwork as their humour.

The video's worth a watch in its entirety( thanks
for posting it to FBook, Matt L2K! )as it's a satirical journey following a joke
gone really, really bad... made all the more poignant by the fact that Trump's
now been made the presdential candidate for the US this election year:

If that's not the ultimate bad joke, then I don't
know what is.

July 23 – More Adventure!

All I did for much of today( and yesterday )was relax, read my
first novel while making notes for the next draft and switch that up with
critiquing chapters for this coming week.

In the evening,a few friends took my lady and I
out for a belated birthday dinner to John's Place, which was
surprisingly empty: it's usually quite crowded, but we didn't complain. We
enjoyed their company as well as the scrumptious always-fresh-baked herb bread(
I can never get enough! )before dinner was over.

The laserdisc movie tonight? The Rocketeer!

Released 25 years ago this summer, this is a film
that I truly love. I have always wondered why it didn't catch on,
as it's as a pure adventure film as the Indiana Jones series, which also
took their inspiration from the film serials of the 1930's and 1940's. My lady
commented repeatedly all the little touches that were layered into the film
that made it seem far more relatable and believable a piece than the usual
Hollywood adventure film, to which I agreed wholeheartedly. Influenced by such
fictional characters as Doc Savage and The Shadow, this film is
all about the simple battle of good versus evil, which is always a story worth
telling.

Incredibly, a GREAT retrospective essay looking back at The Rocketeer was posted just a month ago at RogerEbert.com and whoa, it's
worth a read! I had no idea that the film was based on the Rocketeer
comic created in 1982 which caught the imagination of many in Hollywood who
gave it the moment I needed to be put into production. Nor did I know that Harlan
Ellison himself was a fan, which is a huge endorsement in my books!

As the quote above shows, the Rocketeer was well
ahead of its time and it's a shame that it didn't garner the praise that it so
well deserved back when it was released in 1991. The success of modern
comic-book films such as The Avengers and Ant Man all owe a great deal to The
Rocketeer, and I'm grateful that it helps pave the way for the current
cornucopia of comic-book films being released.

July 24 – A Thousand Deuces!

Sunshine and classic cars area always a great
combination.

After breakfast today, my lady and I went to see
Northwest Duece Days, a huge event being held here in Victoria July 22-24th.
The weekend weather was perfect for it and we arrived downtown around 10am, the
official start of the show.

Holy bleep, but there were a lot of people! Not
to mention huge numbers of incredible custom classic vehicles. We did a tour
around the Empress Hotel area, seeing a few hundred cars, then headed towards
the Parliment buildings, where I got this great shot:

Then we walked, and walked, and walked some
more... to the point where both our sets of feet hurt, as we'd covered nearly
10,000 steps / 5 miles in the hot sun. We got to see most of the rest of the
cars, but after a few hours we were pretty much done and the crowds hadn't
become much thicker in the interim: estimates put the numbers at around 100,000
people in the downtown core, which doesn't sound so bad unless you're trying to
make your way through them all. Fortunately, the 1100+ cars were spread out
enough that it wasn't particularly mad at anyone area, but we got out of there
all the same after seeing our fill.

After lunch, I got home around 2 PM and basically
cooled off for the rest of afternoon, as I had definitely absorbed a little bit too
much solar heat despite my hat and sunscreen. I am pleased that I'm able to
figure out nowadays why my heart rate is often times higher than normal: one
solid reason is always when I'm slightly overheated and while there's no quick
fix to that, cool drinks, rest and fans did the trick today. I also kept
falling asleep while trying to critique several pieces for this Tuesday night's
group session, but that was no reflection on the quality of the work... just
the time spent walking all over the place today in the hot sun.

Today's the last day of my vacation and
I'm taking it easy, after writing the blog in stages on and off in the evening.
It's been a good vacation in that I'm feeling relaxed and balanced mentally,
ready to head back to the day job this week while keeping in mind that my REAL
work still awaits in the evenings: finishing the edits on my novel's fourth
draft, then getting back to writing the rest of the second novel AND getting
geared up for all the other related things to do to get my writing in the hands
of those people who can Make It Happen.